Burned
by Aaerial15
Summary: What if rescue wasn't as forthcoming in Gingerbread? Buffy, Willow, and Amy are nearly burned alive. Will anyone make it unscathed? ONE SHOT!


**Burned**

**A Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic**

_Author's note: I do not own the characters in this story, just the situations involved. All characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. That being said, enjoy!_

"NO!" Willow screamed at the top of her lungs as two women she had never met before tied her to a post in a random room in Sunnydale City Hall, while others continued to pile the books confiscated from Sunnydale High's library around her. To her right, Buffy was tied tighter, but unfortunately, she was unconscious. So far all attempts to wake the Slayer were for naught.

To Buffy's right, Amy Madison also struggled as she was bound to another post. Willow continued to plead with her mother. "Why are you doing this to me?" she asked, her voice quivering with fear. Sheila Rosenburg was undaunted to her daughter's distress. "There's no cure but the fire!" she shouted back. Amy continued struggling as much as she could. "Buffy! She yelled. "BUFFY!"

"This is crazy, Mom!" Willow argued, to no avail. Her mother didn't even respond. She just continued to oversee the proceedings with frightening precision. "Put extra books around Bunny," she directed. Despite the situation, Willow rolled her eyes. "Mom, her name is Buffy," she mumbled under her breath. What Willow was STILL trying to wrap her mind around was the fact that Buffy's mom was organizing this entire thing. "Mrs. Summers, please," Willow began, but Joyce cut her off. "Be quiet, witch!" she ordered.

Meanwhile, Xander and Oz finally arrived at City Hall. As they burst through the doors, it wasn't hard to realize where their friends were kept. They were met with a very large group of men guarding one single door. There was menace in their glare as they focused their attention on the two boys.

Xander thought quickly. "What's with the grim?" he asked. "We're here to join you guys." If anything the glares from the men intensified. "No really, why should you guys have all the fun? We wanna be part of the hate." It was clear where this was about to go. Oz offered his own two cents. "Just so we're clear, you guys know you're nuts, right?" he asked, before he and Xander immediately ran past them. Shouts of "Get them!" could be heard as they raced down the hall.

Buffy finally stirred to consciousness. She took one look at her situation and it took all of her willpower to not panic. "Good morning, sleepyhead," Joyce said serenely as she gazed up at her daughter. Buffy's mind went immediately to attempting to reason with her mother. "Mom, you don't want this," Buffy said, trying to force her fear away.

"Since when does it matter what I want?" Joyce retorted. "I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead, I got a Slayer." Buffy's eyes widened as Willow's mom approached hers, a makeshift torch in her hand. "Torch," she said, offering it to Joyce, who took it without a moment's pause. Buffy and Willow shared a fearful glance.

"This has been so trying. You've been such a champ," Joyce said as she stood next to Sheila, torch in hand. "Oh, you too, Joyce," Sheila replied. Joyce smiled. "We should stay close. Have lunch," Joyce added. "Oh, I'd like that." With no further adue, Joyce bent down to light the books that had been arranged around Amy, Buffy and Willow's feet on fire. "Oh, you can't be serious," Amy said as fire made contact with the books in front of Buffy. "MOM, DON'T!" Buffy yelled as Joyce lit her pyre. She then turned her attention to Amy.

Where she'd only lit one fire in the books piled around Buffy, she lit Amy's pyre in three places. Another torch bearer had lit the books around Willow in two places. If there was any rescue, it had to be soon. As the fire began rising around Amy's legs, she decided it was time to do something drastic.

"Okay," she said, struggling not to cry out in pain from the heat. "You wanna fry a witch? I'll give you a witch." She glared at the crowd. "Goddess Hecate," she chanted. "Work thy will." Buffy remembered this spell. "Uh Oh," she whispered. "Before thee, let the unclean thing crawl," Amy finished just as the flames began to catch to her pants.

Her body was surrounded with lights. Finally, her clothes simply dropped to the floor. It appeared as if she had teleported. A squeaking sound confirmed that this was not the case, as a black rat scurried across the floor and to a nearby vent. Buffy stared at this development. "She couldn't do us first?" she asked fearfully.

Willow was a bit more constructive. "You've seen what we can do," she threatened. "Another step, and you will all feel my power," she added. Buffy pressed her head against the post she was tied to. She looked at Willow without turning her head. "What are you gonna do? Float a pencil at them?" she asked. Willow was undaunted. "It's a REALLY BIG power," she said, trying to be brave.

Buffy could see a bit of uneasiness in the people's faces. It seemed to be working, so she piled on. "YES!" she exclaimed. "You will all be turned into vermin," she said. "And some of you will be fish!" She spied a man in at least his late forties making his way to the door. "Yeah, you, in the back, will be fish!"

The man seemed to squirm at the thought. "Maybe we should go," he said nervously. Buffy and Willow's hopes were dashed by the supposedly dead children who started this whole mess stepping forward. "But you promised," the boy said. "You have to kill the bad girls," the girl added.

Cordelia Chase parked her car in front of Buffy's house. Her mom had gone crazy. She had taken away every piece of clothing Cordy owned that was black. She also took away all her scented candles. Buffy seemed to be the cause of this insanity, so Buffy could be the one to fix it. She always seemed to anyway.

Cordy realized that lately she had been too harsh on Buffy, but she was still stinging from Xander's betrayal. "If it wasn't for Buffy, I never would have fallen for him," she had reasoned. But even though she was considering lightening up on at least Buffy, who truly had nothing to do with Xander's cheating, she would never say so out loud.

She walked right up and tried to open the door, only to find it locked. "Locked?" she frustratingly said. Buffy's front door was almost NEVER locked. It was a really good thing vampires had to be invited in, or how Buffy and her mother continued to survive in Sunnydale would be an unsolved mystery. "She can't not be home right now," Cordy whispered to herself as she tried to look through a window.

Xander and Oz finally managed to lose their pursuers, at least for the time being. "Finally,"Xander said tiredly. "I don't think I can run anymore." Oz, meanwhile, focused his attention to a nearby air vent. He was sure he was seeing smoke come from it. Then to his horror, he heard Willow's voice. "NO!" he heard her faintly scream. "OH GOD, HELP!" Xander looked up in surprise. "Willow?" he asked. "Sounds like she's right...above us?"

Oz slammed the vent down, then immediately backed away as smoke came through. If his plan was to go through the vent to find wherever they were holding his friends, the idea was quickly vetoed by the smoke. It would be a deathtrap. He looked back the way they came. They had to do something, and they were running out of time.

"They hurt us," Dead Girl said. "Burn them," Dead Boy added. "Mom, dead people are talking to you!" she yelled, desperate to get through to her mother. "I'm sorry, Buffy,"Joyce replied, watching on as the flames rose around Buffy and Willow. "Mom, look at me," Buffy pleaded. "You love me. You're NOT gonna be able to live with yourself if you do this!" Joyce was unmoved. "You earned this!" she replied sternly. "You toyed with unnatural forces. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't punish you?"

Buffy shrank back as much as she could from the flames. She glanced at Willow, who was not doing so well. The flames seemed seconds away from her. "Buffy, I can't take it. It's too hot!" Willow said pleadingly. If Buffy could only break free of these ropes. "I'm sorry, Will. If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened. "There wouldn't be..."

Buffy was unable to finish her thought. "BUFFY, I'M ON FIRE!" Willow screamed. Buffy glanced down, and saw that indeed, the fire began burning Willow's right leg, just under the knee. Willow unleashed a truly bloodcurdling scream as she began to burn. It was a painfully slow process.

Buffy stared at the door, trying to block out her best friend's screams of pain. Where was Giles? Xander? She'd accept help from Spike without asking twice at this point. "Oh God, Buffy...IT HURTS!" Willow screamed. now both her legs were on fire, and that fire was inching its way slowly upwards.

Buffy looked at the flames around her own pyre. In a few short moments, if she didn't do SOMETHING, ANYTHING, her screams would fill the room with Willow's. The flames where working their way up Willow's thighs. It was all or nothing

Buffy drew upon every ounce of Slayer strength in her body. If she couldn't break the ropes, she'd break the post she was tied to. She threw herself backwards as hard as she could, and the post snapped free. The fire caught the ropes, and Buffy gritted her teeth as they burned her arms, but finally, she was free.

She got to her feet, and immediately moved toward Willow. "Stop her!" Joyce yelled. Two men moved into Buffy's path, but she had no time. She bodily threw one into the other, and then threw herself at Willow. Willow's post broke free as well, and some of the ropes had burned enough that Buffy was able to pull Willow from the post she was to die tied to, but Willow was still on fire. "Sorry Will, this is gonna be rough," Buffy said as she picked Willow up and tossed her as far from the flames as she could. Willow did the only thing she could do, and rolled around in an attempt to extinguish the flames that where still burning her legs.

The demon children glared as Buffy turned her attention to them. They made a move to the door, but Buffy was faster. She grabbed Dead Boy by the neck, and unceremoniously snapped it. This in turn, caused Dead Girl to fall to the floor. Buffy released Dead Boy, and the two bodies merged to form one very UGLY, but very dead demon.

Joyce sat down in shock as the weight of everything that had just happened hit her all at once. "Buffy..." she sputtered, but she couldn't even form words. Just then, Xander and Oz burst through the door, and looked in shock at Willow, still on the ground.

Her pants, from the mid thigh down, were all but burned away. Xander winced. Some of the fabric had actually melted into Willow's skin. "Will," he said. Buffy took charge. She glared at the adults in the room. "Don't just fucking stand there!" she shouted. "Somebody call an ambulance. The older gentleman Buffy had previously singled out to become a fish moved to comply.

"It hurts..." Willow said softly. Her voice was raspy. No one had taken into account all the smoke from the fire. Buffy eyed a firehose that seemed to be attatched to the wall. With one solid kick, she broke the glass, then turned it on the still burning books, most of which were too ruined anyway.

"Everybody out," Buffy ordered. The room quickly emptied. "Buff, I don't think she can walk," Oz said as Willow lay prone on the ground. Buffy nodded. "That's ok. We'll help her." Without any further prompting, Oz took position and slowly helped Buffy ease Willow to her feet.

They carried her between them outside City Hall, just as an ambulance pulled up. The paremedics helped ease her onto a stretcher, and immediately put an oxygen mask over her face. As they departed for the hospital, Oz did something not normal. He hugged Buffy. "Thanks," he said. "We tried, but the door was guarded," he explained.

"It's okay," Buffy replied. "None of this is anybody's fault." Oz took little comfort in that. "I'll meet you at the hospital," she said. Oz nodded and left with Xander, leaving Buffy to see to her mother.

Joyce had slowly stumbled her way outside. She seemed to be numb to her surroundings. "I..." she said. Buffy embraced her in a hug. "It's okay," Buffy said. "It's over now." Buffy saw the tears streaming down her mother's face. "I can't believe I almost..." she couldn't finish the thought. "Let's go home," Buffy suggested.

About three hours later, the Scoobies convened at Sunnydale General Hospital. Giles got himself checked out, and had suffered a minor concussion. Willow suffered minor smoke inhalation, but also suffered second and third degree burns on both her legs. The doctors said she would be in need of a wheelchair for a while, but she'd live.

**The End**


End file.
